Materials forming lenses that change or distort with increases of humidity are typically plastics, especially acrylic plastics. Some hydrocarbon plastics resist water intake and are used in special situations for lenses, but the material are expensive and are difficult to mold to form the lens.
The prior art has addressed this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,360 to Nakanishi, but the solution presented in that patent is one which significantly restricts the characteristics and form of the lens since it is based on the premise that a lens fully permeated with water does not exhibit major distortion. Accordingly, the better lenses in accordance with this patent would be tall and thin.
Lenses of this invention may differ little from ordinary form for scan lenses, but have vapor barriers applied to render the lens highly resistant to increases in humidity.